What Are The Results Of The Articles Of Confederation Perpetual Union

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first governing document of the United States. The idea of a central and coordinated effort for the colonies (or states, as they had become) was deemed necessary and beneficial in light of the Revolutionary War. The environment in which it was written, however, ensured its lim-ited power and in effect created a weak system of government. The Articles fostered many achievements, such as creating a central body to conduct foreign policy, estab-lishment of the departments of war, treasury and marine, as well as the national postal system. But their inadequacy in regulating the economy, establishing a fair system of representation, and (chiefly) ability to fund the authorities they were

An underlying theme, though, was to ensure that one tyrant power (British Crown) wasn’t replaced by another (new national government). The Articles were written with the purpose of limiting national govern-ment authority and ensuring the independence and sovereignty of the states. Each state was, in effect, it’s own country with regards to internal affairs. They established citizenship for the United States, and declared that anyone could move freely between the states. The Articles were also successful in negotiating the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War in 1783. With its many successes, the Articles’ design of limited power gave America a re-turn of just that; a weak and ineffective government. Although the terms of the Treaty of Paris gave Great Britain the right to sue and collect debts post-war, the new govern-ment had no power in enforcing this, and many states completely disregarded this clause. (Kelly, 2017). This pointed out one of the main weaknesses of the Articles;

Well known dis-plays of lack of defense provisioning are in the rampant attrition due to non-payment, and suffering of Colonial troops at Valley Forge. The inability of Congress to regulate trade was another great hurdle. At the con-clusion of the Revolutionary War, Great Britain began to flood American markets with goods, to the chagrin of some. Congress was given the ability to coin money for use throughout, but many states still traded in their own printed currency, perpetuating the instability of the economy. A large shortfall in the Articles was the lack of governmental organization. There was no central court or judicial system to interpret national laws or set precedence. There was also no executive branch to enforce laws that had been passed by Con-gress. Even Congress itself was seen as ineffective in their process of passing laws. Under the Articles, each state, regardless of size or population, was given only one vote in Congress, which was deemed unfair representation to larger states. Any amendments to the Articles required unanimous consent, and any new laws required 9/13 to pass as a majority (Kelly,